The interpreter has arrived

Multi media artist Ranbir Karkera's creations reveal prophecies, and draw viewers to an ethereal plain. Step in to figure your own tryst with interpreting yourself in a surreal space

Ten years ago, on an unusually quiet Gurgaon Expressway, a lone truck rattled its way towards a deserted dhaba. Suspiciously eyeing a white cubicle, he brought the burly vehicle to a halt.


Ranbir Kaleka's works will be displayed at Volte Gallery. Pics/ bipin kokate

The cubicle wasn't there the last time he stopped here. Cautiously, he stepped into the alien cabin to refresh himself. He washed his hands, checked his reflection and twirled up the waxed ends of his moustache. He was tired and sober. But then, all at once, he wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even him. The man in the mirror was now a complete stranger. A second later, a female face was staring back at him. She wanted to say something. Predictably, our hero couldn't care less. Before the door of the loo could swing shut, the driver and his truck were halfway to the horizon.

Many reacted the same way. Still others stepped into Ranbir Kaleka's "Powder Room" installation for The DeEgo-Cube, Indo-Austrian Art Projects in Public Space and believed the mirror revealed prophecies or accounts of their past lives.

Unnerving as it may have been, even a decade ago, this Patiala-born artist's mixed media installation successfully fit Greek philosopher Aristotle's definition of Art where, rather than representing the outward appearance of things it drew onlookers to an ethereal plain. For the first time, Mumbaiites will experience Ranbir Kaleka's creations at Volte, a Colaba gallery.

Here, as you soak in the exquisiteness of Kaleka's masterful creations, short films projected on their canvases will breathe life into them. For instance, in one of the works to be displayed here, we watched a ghostly boy dart playfully across the corridor behind a man (painted on canvas) as his soulful gaze was fixed upon an empty jug.

A woman emerged from his chest to fill the empty vessel before she disappeared, a table burst into flames and the child reappeared. This time the boy left through the front door. He walked into the arms of a vaporous lady standing by a solitary flowering tree outside.

The man followed, leaving his painted self behind.u00a0 Day turned into night. Milk poured in through the open door and the milk pot shone with an unearthly light. The house was plunged into darkness and the story resumed again.

To us this work, titled simply, "The Milk Jug" or "Fables from the House of Ibaan," represented a man haunted by the loss of his family or one who was so caught up in urban chaos that his life regretfully remained an empty jug. This graduate from Chandigarh College of Art and London's Royal College of Art prefers the audience to interpret for themselves.

"To define it would be limiting its boundaries," says Kaleka whose works have been displayed at major international galleries and museums, from Tokyo's Mori Museum to New York's Bose Pacia Gallery. The only hint he offers is, "The repetition -- the video loop -- is in itself meaningful."

At: Volte Gallery, 2/19 Kamal Mansion, Arthur Bunder Road, near Radio Club, Colaba; Call: 2204 1220; Sweet Unease, Ranbir Kaleka's exhibition is on till February 15